Jackson County AlArchives Biographies.....Bledsoe, James M. July 22 1852 - living in 1893 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 27, 2004, 6:42 pm Author: Brant & Fuller (1893) JAMES M. BLEDSOE, president of Scottsboro Baptist college, was born in Barbour county, Ala., July 22, 1852. He was educated, first, in the schools of Barbour county, and then in the academy at Midway, Bullock county, leaving this school in January, 1873. He taught several of the classes in the academy during the second year, 1871-72. In 1873 he went to Winchester, Tenn., and was there associated with Prof. R. A. Clark, in the Carrick academy, they being the principals. He remained in that school five years, during which time the school gained a wide reputation, the attendance rapidly increasing from forty to 130. In the year 1878, Prof. R. A. Clark, Mr. Bledsoe and J. W. Terrell re-organized the academy, and founded the Winchester Normal school. Mr. Bledsoe was made professor of the classics and English literature, and held that chair until 1882. when he accepted the chair of classics and pedagogics, in Mary Sharp college, at Winchester, which chair he held until 1889. He then removed to Scottsboro, Ala., and accepted the presidency of the Scottsboro college and Normal school, of which he is president and professor of the classics and philosophy. Prof. Bledsoe is a member of the American Legion of Honor, and of the Baptist church, of which he was ordained a deacon in Winchester, Tenn. He was married in 1879, to Ella Turman, daughter of B. B. Turman, of Winchester, and to this marriage there were born two daughters, viz.: Lilian and Alma. Mrs. Bledsoe died in 1890. Prof. Bledsoe is a democrat, but has never taken any active part in politics. His father, Dr. J. W. Bledsoe, was born in Butts county, Ga., in 1822. He was educated in medicine at the medical college at Augusta, Ga., and at Nashville, Tenn., graduating at both places, and practicing in Barbour and Bullock counties, Ala., up to the time of his death in 1871. He was for a time in the Confederate service, raising a company toward the close of the war, of which he was made captain. He married Lillis Turk, a native of Alabama, and to this marriage were born seven children, of whom six grew to mature years, viz.: James M.;. J. W., of Bullock county; Mary J., wife of T. J. Gains, of Winchester, Tenn.; Lillis, teacher of music in the college at Scottsboro, and principal of the music department in the normal school at Winchester, Tenn., for ten years; Lorena, wife of Mr. Lawrence, of Montgomery; Robert L., who died in 1889. The Bledsoe family is of English origin, and Mrs. Bledsoe, mother of Prof. Bledsoe, died in January 1868. Additional Comments: from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 1132-1133 Published by Brant & Fuller (1893) Madison, WI This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 3.2 Kb